Terrigno Convicted of Embezzling $9,000 : W. Hollywood Councilwoman Took U.S. Funds From Defunct Center

West Hollywood City Councilwoman and former Mayor Valerie Terrigno was found guilty Friday on all 12 counts of embezzling $9,000 in federal funds while heading a now-defunct counseling center two years ago.

The verdict was returned by a federal court jury after less than four hours of deliberation. U.S. District Judge Laughlin Waters, who presided over the four-day trial, set sentencing for April 30.

Terrigno faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines on 11 felony counts. She also faces a one-year jail term and a $1,000 fine on the remaining misdemeanor count.

After the verdict, defense attorney Howard Weitzman told reporters outside the courtroom that he would have no comment.

“Neither will Valerie,” he said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Richard M. Callahan said he was “obviously pleased” with the verdict.

Terrigno, 32, who ran as an openly lesbian City Council candidate when West Hollywood was incorporated in 1984, was indicted last October on 14 counts of embezzling federal funds between 1982 and 1984, while she headed Crossroads Counseling Service. She was initially accused of embezzling $11,000, but two counts were subsequently dropped.

After the indictment, Terrigno said she had been singled out because of her homosexuality, but a woman juror who refused to give her name said it never was a factor in jury deliberations.

“It did not come up in our discussions at all,” the juror said. “I feel like I can make a just decision without any consideration (of Terrigno’s homosexuality) in my heart.”

Jury Foreman David Brinkley said the panel “judged her just like a normal person.”

“We figured she knew what she was doing,” he said. “She knew exactly what she was doing for all intents and purposes.”

During closing arguments earlier Friday, Weitzman had maintained that while Terrigno might be guilty of mismanagement, she was not guilty of embezzlement.

“The evidence indicates mismanagement, perhaps poor judgment, but that doesn’t make her a thief or a criminal,” Weitzman said.

Her attorney insisted that Terrigno had no intention of stealing the $9,000 she was accused of embezzling from the center. INtent is required to comMit embezzlement, he told jurors.

Weitzman also said the charges against Terrigno were “based on innuendo, speculation and, in part, on character assassination.”

Callahan, during his closing remarks, argued that Terrigno created a personal account to gain access to federal funds to satisfy her “whims” and those of her friends. He suggested that some of the money was used to help finance her council campaign.

Noting that the center she operated was created to help the poor and the homeless, he added that “a lot of people who could have been helped were not, because . . . she bought clothes and paid her rent and had her car fixed” with money intended for them.

In his closing arguments, Callahan also charged that Terrigno repeatedly attempted to conceal her personal use of the center’s funds by falsely designating the expenditures “emergency rent” for indigent individuals or by forging other documents.

The largest single expenditure listed in the indictment is for $5,000 worth of food certificates purchased from Safeway. Terrigno is charged with forging a list of indigent names as bogus recipients of the certificates that were issued to herself and her friends.

Terrigno admitted during testimony that the night before an audit by United Way, which administered part of the federal funds allocated to Crossroads, she sat down to make up the bogus list of indigents who received the coupons, Callahan said.

He charged that most of the coupons were actually issued to Terrigno and about half a dozen people involved in her campaign for mayor. Others were used by a friend of Terrigno for a private party for Gay Pride Week, he said.

Date of Campaign

“The use (of the coupons) coincides ironically with the date of the campaign,” he added, noting that about $1,000 worth of the coupons were used during the week before, during and after the November, 1984, election.

Callahan also charged that in many cases, Terrigno illegally backdated checks to meet the deadline given most government-funded agencies for spending certain federal funds or returning them to their source.

While Terrigno admitted that she could not justify her actions and that, in some instances, they were “absolutely the wrong thing to do,” Weitzman argued that Terrigno is not on trial for writing false information on checks or financial records.

“She tried to keep (Crossroads) open the best she could, using methods she should not have used. . . . She said so herself,” he said.

Weitzman insisted that there was no intent on Terrigno’s part to steal or misuse the money. He argued that Terrigno often used her own money to pay Crossroads expenses and that she would later reimburse herself from the agency’s funds.

Agency Funds

This was the case, for instance, when Terrigno paid her rent with agency funds, he said. He added that according to Terrigno, she was not reimbursed for up to $2,000 that she spent.

Weitzman also maintained that most of the Safeway coupons were used to buy food distributed to the poor and that they were given to Terrigno’s friends and acquaintances only after they paid cash for them. The money, he said, went to the Crossroads center.